^L»  -3  ^         s*j  • 

TGIGw  .. 

Con -fed*   THE  WORD  OF  GOD  "A  NATCOKg  LIFE. 

—      ' t  J 

. ~ ■ 

*  J 

A  SEEMCXNT, 

PREACHED  BEFORE  THE 

BIBLE     COnsrVENTION 

OF    THE 


CONFEDERATE  STATES. 


AUGUSTA,    GEORGIA,    MARCH    19tli,    1862. 


By  Rev.  GEORGE  F.  PIERCE,  D.D. 

Bishop  of  the  Methodist  E.  Church. 


AUGUSTA,    GA: 

PRINTED      AT      THE      OFFICE      OF      THE      CONSTITUTIONALIST, 


18G2. 


i^*5    '> 


AUGUSTA,  MARCH  20th,  1S62. 
Bishop  G.  F.  Pierce,  D.D.: 

Dear  Brother — The  undersigned  have  been  appionted  a  Committee  by  the  Bible  Conven- 
tion, now  in  session  in  this  City,  "  to  ask  a  copy  of  your  sermon,  to  superintend  its  publication, 
and  to  devise  the  ways  and  means  for  publishing  the  same.*1  Believing  that  its  circulation 
in  our  Confederate  States  will  be  productive  of  great  good,  and  earnestly  desiring  an  early 
compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Convention,  we  subscribe  ourselves, 

Your  obedient  servants. 


J.  O.  A.  CLAEK. 
J.  A.  ANSLEY,  '  ; 


Com. 


AUGUSTA,  MAECH  20th,  1S62. 
Messrs  Claek  and  Anslet  : 

Dear  Brethren — Your  note  has  been  received,  requesting  a  copy  of  my  discourse  before  the 
Bible  Convention  for  publication.  I  did  not  anticipate  this  call,  and  am  not  ready  to  furnish 
the  manuscript,  but  will  comply  at  an  early  day  with  the  request  of  the  Convention.  Your 
expressed  belief,  that  the  publication  will  be  "productive  of  great  good,"  overcomes  my 
reluctance  to  the  labor  of  preparation.  If  the  sermon  shall  contribute  any  thing  in  bringing 
the  people  to  live  by  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  I  shall  feel  that  I  have  not  lived  in  vain. 

Yours  fraternally, 

G.  F.  PIEECE. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding,  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://archive.org/details/wordofgodnationsOOpier 


j^.     S  E  R  M  O '  N" . 


*'  That  he  might  make  thee  know,  that  man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  doth  man  live." — 
Deuteronomy,  viii:  3. 

"  The  things  which  were  written  aforetime,  were  written  for  our 
learning,  that  we,  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures, 
might  have  hope."  The  narratives  of  the  old  Testament  are  not  to 
be  regarded  as  simple  paragraphs  in  general  history — mere  links  con- 
necting, in  consecutive  order,  the  events  of  the  olden  time,  but  as 
embodying  great  principles  in  human  society  and  in  the  divine  ad- 
ministration, vital  alike  to  the  well-being  of  the  one  and  the  uniformity 
of  the  other.  God  is  always  the  same  ;  and  the  Bible,  while  it  re- 
cords the  actions  of  men,  is  really  the  history  of  God,  and  as  "with 
Him  there  is  neither  variableness  nor  shadow  of  turning,"  we  learn 
from  His  past  procedure  what  we  may  expect  as  to  His  present  and 
future  government.  This  fact  being  fully  apprehended,  we  have  a 
key  to  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  and  need  not  greatly  err  in 
interpreting  current  events  or  in  speculations  as  to  the  future.  While 
in  the  Mosaic  economy,  there  were  many  statutes,  local  and  tempo- 
rary, having  their  origin  and  use  in  what  was  peculiar  to  an  introduc- 
tory dispensation,  yet  among  them  are  laws  of  universal  and  permanent 
obligation — principles  ordained  of  God  for  all  time,  and  perpetuated 
for  the  instruction  of  mankind,  in  the  lasting  records  of  the  Church. 

Government  is  an  institution  of  Heaven  :  the  powers  that  be  are 
ordained  of  God.  It  is  true,  the  Scriptures  do  not  designate  any  par- 
ticular form  of  government  as  best — nor  are  they  eclectic  as  between 
the  various  theories  which  have  challenged  the  suffrage  of  mankind ; 
but  as  the  condition  precedent  to  the  divine  blessing,  the  duties  of 
rulers  and  subjects  are  distinctly  defined,  and  conformity  to  them 
urged  by  all  that  is  precious  in  a  nation's  hopes,  and  by  all  that  is  fear- 
ful in  the  just  judgment  of  Almighty  God.  It  is  true,  that  many 
features  of  the  Jewish  polity  were  rudimental,  introductory,  and  in- 
tended to  teach  the  great  lessons  of  dependence  and  obedience,  as 
well  as  to  meet  for  the  time  being  the  local  necessities  of  tribes  and 
families.  Patriarchal  supremacy,  the  subordinate  authority  of  the 
chiefs  of  clans,  and,  under  them,  the  heads  of  houses  were  all  necess- 


6 

ary  to  local  government,  but  were  wholly  inadequate  for  general  pur- 
poses. Similarity  of  institutions  was  too  feeble  a  bond  of  unity,  and 
the  elements  of  discord  and  disintegration  were  too  strong  to  be 
neutralized  by  the  perpetually  diluting  memories  of  a  common 
descent  and  the  traditional  marvels  of  Egypt,  the  wilderness  and  the 
land  of  Canaan.  Before  their  settlement  in  the  Land  of  Promise,  the 
children  of  Israel,  however  distinct  as  a  people,  were  not  a  nation  in 
the  organic  sense  of  that  word  ;  and  their  governmental  condition  was 
elementary,  and  the  forms  of  authority  were  simple — yet  sufficient 
for  order  and  prompt  action.  While  the  law  did  not  abrogate  these 
institutions,  and  the  theocracy  to  be  inaugurated  did  not  supercede 
them,  God  was  all  the  time  educating  them  to  broader  views  of  their 
destiny,  and  to  more  exalted  conceptions  of  their  spiritual  relations, 
and  of  the  high  functions  they  were  to  perform  as  a  chosen  people 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  disciplinary  process  by  which  the  Jews  were  conducted  through 
their  singular  history  from  bondage  to  national  independence,  power 
and  prosperity,  looked  to  two  grand  objects — one  of  which  has  been 
largely  overlooked  in  our  perusal  of  the^  historic  records  of  the  Old 
Testament.  One  purpose,  and  the  primary  one,  was  to  train  up  a 
people  to  a  nationality,  favorable  in  the  plans  of  Providence  for  the 
introduction  of  Messiah's  kingdom  :  the  other  and  the  collateral  one, 
secondary  in  order,  yet  vastly  important  to  mankind,  was,  that  taking 
the  Jeio  as  the  type  of  his  race,  God  might  develope  the  sources  of 
weakness  and  danger — the  probable  points  of  departure  from  the  true 
and  the  right  way — the  temptations  most  likely  to  corrupt  and  dete- 
riorate— the  elements  of  decay,  overthrow  and  extinction.  The  Jews, 
with  all  their  folly,  ingratitude  and  perverseness,  were  fair  specimens 
of  human  nature  ;  and  an  impartial  record  of  individual  experience 
or  national  history,  would  show  pride,  unbelief,  and  forgetfulness  of 
God  in  forms  as  revolting  and  under  circumstances  as  provoking,  as 
any  furnished  by  Ephraim  or  Judah. 

Moses,  in  the  address  of  which  the  text  is  a  part,  exhorts  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  to  obey  all  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  their  God — 
reminds  them  of  the  way  along  which  they  had  been  led,  of  the  afflic- 
tions which  they  had  endured,  and  the  deliverances  wrought  for  them — 
interprets  for  them  the  programme  of  divine  Providence,  and  declares 
the  ulterior  object  to  have  been  that  they  might  know,  that  "  man 
doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Lord  doth  man  live." 

The  lowest  construction  which  these  words  will  bear — and  doubtless 
the  doctrine  is  true — is,  that  man's  animal  physical  life  is  not  sus- 


tained  by  bread  alone,  but  by  any  thing  that  God  may  appoint  and 
sanctify  for  nutriment  ;  that  His  blessing  first  gave  the  earth  its  fer- 
tility and  continues  it,  and  if  He  were  to  command  the  air  to  sustain 
us,  it  would  be  equally  obedient. 

But  the  text  has  a  higher  meaning.  It  teaches  that  not  only  our 
being,  but  our  well-being  depends  upon  conformity  to  the  divine 
word — that  life,  in  its  lowest  gradation,  as  predieable  of  man,  is  not 
sustained  by  the  natural  law  of  adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  and  can 
neither  be  developed,  prolonged  nor  made  happy,  outside  of  the  will 
and  word  of  the  Lord — that  bread,  though  ordained  as  the  staff  of  life, 
does  not  nourish  by  virtue  of  its  chemical  properties,  but  by  the 
blessing  of  the  Lord — that  the  transgression  of  the  divine  law,  by  in- 
temperance— excess  in  the  use  of  what  God  supplies  or  allows — poi- 
sons, destroys,  entails  disease  and  death  ;  that  life  is  to  be  regarded 
not  as  a  physiological  fact,  but  a  moral  endowment,  deriving  its  dig- 
nity and  value  from  its  religious  use,  the  moral  appropriation  of  its 
powers,  its  spiritual  relations,  and  its  possible  eternal  sequences.  The 
words,  "  man  liveth,"  though  a  simple  form  of  speech,  are  nevertheless 
compound  in  their  signification.  "  Man"  is  a  generic  term,  and  stands 
for  the  race  ;  "  liveth"  is  concrete,  ami  includes  man  as  an  individual 
being,  as  a  member  of  the  community,  as  a  citizen  of  the  country  ; 
and  the  whole  comprehension  of  the  phrase  is,  that  man,  considered 
as  an  independent  personality  ;  that  human  society,  in  its  aggregate ; 
the  church,  as  an  ecclesiastical  organization  ;  the  State,  as  a  body 
politic,  are  all  under  the  same  general  law  of  dependence,  subjection 
and  obedience,  as  the  condition  of  life,  honor,  prosperity  and  per 
petuity. 

We  have  assembled  under  very  peculiar  circumstances.  As  a 
people,  we  are  in  the  midst  of  revolution.  Our  secession  from  the  old 
Federal  Union,  and  the  inauguration  of  a  new  Confederacy,  have  not 
only  dissolved  the  political  ties  which  connected  us  with  the  Northern 
States,  but  have  broken  up  our  religious  societies,  our  benevolent 
institutions,  and  thrown  us  upon  new  organizations  to  meet  our 
responsibilities  as  a  Christian  people  to  the  world  around  us.  It  has 
seemed  to  me  appropriate,  therefore,  to  waive,  in  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  chosen,  the  special  views  and  individual  applications  which  the 
words  would  justify  and  even  demand  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
and  to  content  myself  in  a  brief  discourse  upon  a  few  leading  ideas, 
as  they  apply  to  society  and  the  State. 

The  chapter  opens  with  the  implied  doctrine,  that  the  test  of  true 
allegiance  to  God,  and  the  security  of  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all 


8 

godliness  and  honesty,  is  in  universal  obedience  to   the   divine   com- 
mandments. 

This  is  a  broad,  perhaps  a  startling  proposition  ;  but  it  is  the  start- 
ing point  of  all  sound  and  safe   reasoning  on  the   question  of  duty, 
either  personal,  social  or  political.     Obedience,  to  be  sincere,  must  be 
entire.     Neither  G-od's  authority  nor  man's  real  interests,  will  allow  of 
any  limitation.     All  religion  consists  in  recognising  the  law  and  glory 
of  our  Maker — submitting  to  duty  because  it  is  His  will,  and  not  be- 
cause it  is  a  decision  of  our  reason.     The  authority    of  the  divine 
statute  must  be  most  solemnly  regarded  ;  otherwise,  outward  conform- 
ity is  no  proof  of  inward  loyalty.     To  prevent  delusion,   this  thought 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  or  the  sacrifices  we   make  to  our  own  pride 
and  selfishness  may  assume  the  name  and  claim  the  reward  of  religious 
service.     While  the  will  of  God  is  absolute  and  binding,  even  when 
the  reasons  of  its  enactments  do  not  appear,  still  to  manifest  the  nature 
and  perfection  of  His  government,  He  has  been  pleased  to  declare  the 
benefit  of  His  laws,  and  these  appeal  so   strongly  to  our  instincts  and 
our  solicitations  of  interest,  as  to  constrain  our  admiration  and  homage, 
and,  under  powerful  impressions  of  reverence  and  fear,  we  sometimes 
resolve  upon  and  pledge  fidelity  and  service.     But  God,  who  knows 
the  latent  propensity  of  evil  in  our  nature,  may  often  address  us  as  he 
did  the  children   of  Israel,   when  they  vowed  to  do   all  that  he  had 
commanded.     "The  people  have  well  said  all  they  have  spoken;  0, 
that  there  were  such   an  heart  in  them,  that  they  would  fear  me,  and 
keep  all  my  commandments  always,  that  it  might  be  well  with  them 
and  their  children  forever  !  "     To  prove  them,  to  know  what  was  in 
their  hearts,  whether  they  would  keep   his  commandments  or  no,  He 
humbled  them,  suffered  them  to  hunger  and  thirst,   led  them  through 
a  variety  of  difficult  circumstances,  favored  them  with  many  miraculous 
deliverances.     They  were  thwarted  and  they  were  indulged,    disap- 
pointed in  their  expectations  and  surprised  by  their  mercies,  punished 
for  their  sins  that  they  might  be  admonished,  and  pardoned  that  they 
might  be  encouraged.     But  they  were  slow  to  learn  the    lessons  of 
Providence.     Distrust,  murmuring,  ingratitude,  disobedience,  marked 
all  their  history.     Failing  in  the  fundamental  principle  of  submission 
and  reference  .to  God,  they   sought   out    many  inventions.     To  say 
nothing  now  of  the  evil  leaven  of  pride,  self-will,  the  imitation  of  the 
multitude  to  do  evil,  which  permeated  their   domestic  life  and  social 
manners,  very  soon  forgetting  all  the  precautionary  counsels  of  Moses, 
all  the  wonders  of  their   own  marvellous  annals    and  their  peculiar 
covenant  relations,   the  practical  recognition  of  their   invisible  King 
became  an   abstraction — a   tradition   without    authority    and  a  fable 


without  a  moral.  They  sought  to  live  by  bread  alone,  to  prosper 
without  virtue,  to  fight  without  divine  warrant,  and  to  conquer  without 
celestial  aid.  The  word  of  the  Lord  was  buried  amid  the  rubbish  of 
their  desecrated  temple.  The  altars,  the  high  places,  every  green 
tree,  the  enthroned  abominations  of  the  heathen,  revealed  a  nation  of 
backsliders  and  idolators,  and  finally  of  captives  and  exiles. 

To  conserve  a  nation,  that  word  of  the  Lord  so  often  announced  in 
the  Bible,  "The  Lord  reigneth,"  must  be  recognised,  acknowledged, 
practically  believed. '  Incorporated  in  the  Constitution,  confessed  by 
the  chief  luagistrate.  re-echoed  by  subordinate  rulers,  pervading  the 
legislation  of  the  country,  presiding  over  public  opinion,  it  will  be  a 
safe-guard  in  revolution,  a  guide  in  peace,  a  Pharos,  beaming  light 
and  hope  upon  the  future.  Political  morality  would  never  have  been 
deemed  a  thing  of  no  concern,  an  article  of  barter,  bandied  about  the 
market  places  of  the  land,  if  men  had  not  first  imagined  that  the 
Most  High  did  jiot  regard  the  actions  of  men  and  administer  justice 
among  the  nations.  A  perverted  public  sentiment,  largely  tinctured 
with  atheism,  which  excludes  God  from  the  affairs  of  earth,  and  eon- 
fines  Him,  (if  it  admit  His  existence  at  all,)  to  heaven  and  heavenly 
j things,  is  a  fruitful  source  of  venality  and  corruption  in  high  places 
and  low  places,  of  insubordination,  of  commercial  fraud  and  infidelity 
to  contracts,  of  impious  legislation  and  wide-spread  contamination. 
Our  republican  fathers  wisely  separated  the  Church  from  the  State  ; 
their  degenerate  successors  madly  separated  the  State  from  Heaven. 
It  has  been  the  fashion  to  theorise  and  decide  on  politics,  as  if  Christi- 
anity were  not  a  superior,  supreme  law,  and  as  though  God  had  aban- 
doned his  book  and  his  rights  to  the  chances  of  a  doubtful  contest. 
Statesmanship  has  become  an  earthly  science,  a  philosophy  without 
religion,  and  a  system  of  expediency  without  a  conscience.  In  dis- 
cussing systems  of  finance,  commerce,  tariffs,  international  relations, 
who  insists  on  moral  causes,  on  the  dependence  of  the  nations  on  Him 
who  turns  the  seasons  round,  dispenses  the  changes  and  destinies  of 
governments,  and  cannot,  and  will  not  be  forgotten,  without  rebuke 
and  judgment  ? 

Loose  and  licentious  notions  of  liberty  are  the  legitimate  out-growth 
of  ignoring  the  supremacy  of  God  Vicious  maxims  fn  trade  become 
current  ;  capital  is  invested  in  enterprises  which  war  against  morality; 
vice  puts  on  the  livery  of  fashion  and  becomes  bold  by  patronage  ; 
the  administration  of  justice  grow*  lax,  in  morbid  sympathy  with  a 
false  philanthropy  ;  unpunished  crime  gangrenes  society  ;  and  deified 
wealth  rides  over  principle  and  merit  and  talent,  and  a  hollow,  heart- 
less selfishness  holds  carnival  over  the  wreck  of  every  virtue. 


10 

The  voice  of  the  multitude,  the  example  of  the  great,  the  power  of 
money,  constitute  an  inquisition  so  virulent  and  overbearing  that  re- 
proof is  dumb  ;  the  testimony  of  the  Church  is  paralyzed,  and,  if  from 
the  wilderness  which  popular  sin  has  made,  there  comes  out  some 
fearless  prophet  of  Heaven,  threatening  the  wrath  to  come,  society, 
demoralised  by  indulgence  and  blinded  by  long  impunity,  rains  upon 
his  honest  head  the  epithets,  bigot,  enthusiast,  fanatic,  hypocrite, 
and  rushes  on  unchecked  to  its  doom.  Men  may  philosophise,  specu- 
late, declaim,  but  God  will  reign.  He  never  abdicates  or  dies.  His 
glory  He  will  not  give  to  another.  We  are  not  our  own,  but  men 
under  authority.  In  mor.als  we  have  no  rights  of  legislation.  We 
have  a  Master  in  heaven.  His  title  to  reverence  is  indisputable  ; 
His  claim  to  homage  and  obedience  inalienable.  We  must  render  to 
God  the  things  which  are  God's.  If  we  would  be  a  Christian  nation, 
vvhat  the  law  commands  or  allows  must  never  contravene  the  behests 
of  Heaven.  Nations  have  a  sort  of  collective  unity,  and  between  rulers 
and  people  there  is  a  reciprocal  responsibility,  and  if  there  be  conni- 
vance in  evil,  each  is  amenable  for  the  guilt  of  the  other.  If  the 
executive,  or  legislative,  or  judicial  department  bring  the  law  or  policy 
of  the  country  into  conflict  with  the  revealed  economy  of  God,  the 
people  should  remonstrate,  vindicate  the  divine  right,  exhaust  the 
remedies  in  their  power,  and,  if  they  cannot  reform,  at  least  fix  the 
burden  where  it  belongs.  If  the  people  grow  corrupt — impious,  and 
claim  the  natural  right  to  do  moral  wrong,  then  the  government  must 
set  itself  to  honor  God,  by  becoming  a  terror  to  them  that  do  evil. 
Rulers  must  not  bear  the  sword  in  vain,  if  they  would  fear  God  and 
live  by  his  word. 

The  Church,  too,  must  cease  to  shrink  before  the  cant  of  those 
godless  demagogues,  who,  when  the  good  seek  to  array  public  opinion 
against  vice,  and  to  bring  law  into  harmony  with  the  Bible,  preach 
liberty  of  conscience,  all  the  more  vociferously  because  they  have  long- 
since  ceased  to  have  any  conscience  or  rule  of  life,  save  selfish  indul- 
gence. Her  testimony  against  evil  must  be  clear,  intrepid,  meek  but 
firm,  patient  but  unwearied.  The  insane  cry  of  popery  and  priest- 
craft must  no  longer  smother  the  thunders  of  the  pulpit ;  and  the 
theory  of  a  Christianity  which  converts  people  without  a  change  of 
heart  or  life — liberal  enough  to  let  men  do  as  they  please  for  the  sake 
of  their  name  and  their  money — which  grants  indulgences  for  sin 
rather  than  be  thought  uncharitably,  relaxes  by  an  apochryphal  canon 
the  stringent,  inexorable  rules  of  purity  and  self-denial,  must  be  met, 
routed,  exiled ;  and  the  sacramental  host  must  know,  that  if  they 
would  drink  of  the  river  whose  streams  make  glad  the  city  of  God, 


11 

then  must  they  fulfil  the  commission  of  His  lips.  The  impregnation 
of  government,  law,  art,  commerce,  civilization,  with  her  own  pure, 
gentle,  peaceable,  loving  sentiments,  is  the  predicted  triumph  of 
Christianity :  and  we  approximate  the  glory  of  that  millennial  age, 
when  we  honor  the  divine  word  by  believing  its  promises,  fearing  its 
threatenings,  adopting  its  counsels,  practising  its  morals ;  when  we 
magnify  the  Lord  and  exalt  His  name ;  when  we  recognise  His  provi- 
dence, beseech  His  aid,  deprecate  His  wrath,  by  confession,  petition 
and  reformation.  I  am  glad  that  our  young  Republic  acknowledges 
God  in  her  Constitution,  and  calls  on  Him  to  witness  the  rectitude  of 
her  aims  and  objects.  I  am  glad  that  our  President,  in  several  official 
acts,  "  seeing  that  we  have  no  might  against  the  great  multitude  com- 
ing upon  us,"  has  sought  to  turn  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  Lord 
their  God  ;  and  that,  in  his  late  inaugural,  he  concludes  with  an 
earnest  appeal  to  God,  and  a  thrilling  declaration  of  his  own  abiding- 
trust  in  the  justice  and  mercy  of  the  Lord  Almighty.  I  am  glad  that 
the  people  have  responded  again  and  again  to  the  call  to  fast  and 
pray  with  unwonted  earnestness  and  universality.  Amid  much  that 
is  discouraging  to  the  pious,  in  view  of  abounding  inicmity,  these  na- 
tional acts,  interpreted  by  Scriptural  examples,  inspire  hope  that  God 
will  vouchsafe  to  the  intercessions  of  the  faithful  few  our  deliverance 
and  liberty.  O,  my  countrymen,  let  us  reverence  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth, 
and  let  us  remember  that  our  country  is  to  be  preserved  and  perpetu- 
ated, not  by  science,  wealth,  patriotism,  population,  armies  or  navies, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord. 
"  Hear  me,  Asa  and  all  Judah  and  Benjamin  :  the  Lord  is  with  you 
while  ye  be  with  Him,  and  if  ye  seek  Him,  He  will  be  found  of  you  ; 
but  if  ye  forsake  Him,  He  will  forsake  you. ' ' 

Another  word  of  the  Lord,  by  which  society  is  to  be  improved  and 
the  nation  exalted  to  healthy,  happy  life,  is  His  statute  on  the  religious 
training  of  the  young.  On  this  subject,  for  a  series  of  years,  the  pol- 
icy of  the  country  has  been  wrong  and  growing  worse.  The  testimony 
of  the  Church  has  been  timid,  wavering  and  inconsistent.  In  relation 
to  it,  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  is  explicit.  The  admonitions  and 
counsels  of  the  Bible  are  frequent,  earnest  and  pointed,  but  a  proud 
and  petulant  philosophy,  full  of  conceit  and  flippant  maxims,  has  cor- 
rupted both  opinion  and  practice,  and  circulated  ideas  full  of  deadly 
poison,  blighting  to  character  and  fatal  to  all  government.  The  primal 
cause  of  well  nigh  all  the  evils  which  afflict  society,  is  to  be  found  in 
defective  family  discipline,  example  and  instruction,  and  in  a  nearly 
total  disregard  of  the  injunctions  of  the  Bible,  the  word  of  the  Lord 
upon  this  subject.     To  train  up  a  child  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 


12 

of  the  Lord,  is  a  lofty  commission,  a  moral  duty  of  the  highest  grade, 
next  in  responsibility  to  our  personal  salvation.  To  fulfil  it  in  perfec- 
tion, requires  the  highest  order  of  intellect  and  the  deepest  work  of 
grace.  According  to  the  capacity  given,  or  that  might  be  acquired, 
every  parent  is  bound  by  the  most  solemn  considerations,  both  per- 
sonal and  relative,  temporal  and  eternal,  to  do  what  he  can  in  devel- 
oping the  immortal  mind  committed  to  his  charge  into  the  highest 
style  of  character.  Admitting  the  intrinsic  difficulties  of  the  task,  I 
can  not  forbear  remarking,  that  the  embarrassments  most  complained 
of  chiefly  arise  from  substituting  the  Divine  by  human  plans — the 
sternness  of  authority,  arbitrary,  imperious  and  passionate  ;  turbulent 
temper,  venting  themselves  in  petulance  and  scolding  ;  an  indiscrimi- 
nate use  of  the  rod,  or  the  bribery  of  weak  compliances  or  irredeem- 
able and  unredeemed  promises,  or  the  postponement  of  all  effort  till 
the  day  of  salvation  is  gone  ;  and  all  these  in  the  face  of  God's  word, 
which  says  :  "  Fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  Jp  wrath  ;"  "forbear 
threatening;"  "  put  away  lying  ;"  "  be  not  hasty  in  thy  spirit  to  be 
angry  ;"  "  he  that  lovsth  bis  son  chasteneth  him  betimes.''  The  Bible 
not  only  gives  specific  instruction  in  all  these  things,  but  is  itself  the 
best  instrumeut  of  discipline.  Its  doctrines  are  to  be  taught,  its  prin- 
ciples explained,  its  motives  urged,  its  promises  applied,  its  threaten- 
ings  announced.  'And  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thy  house  and 
when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when 
thou  risest  up."  For,  says  the  Psalmist,  God  "established  a  testi- 
mony in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a  law  in  Israel,  which  he  commanded 
our  fathers,  that  they  should  make  them  known  to  their  children  :  that 
the  generation  to  come  might  know  them,  even  the  children  which 
should  be  born  :  who  should  arise  and  declare  them  to  their  children  : 
that  they  might  set  their  hope  in  God,  and  not  forget  the  works  of 
God,  but  keep  his  commandments."  How  wise,  how  benignant,  how 
conservative  this  statute  !  A  father  dies  without  a  will ;  the  division 
of  his  estate  is  settled  by  the  arbitrament  of  law  ;  but  if  he  failed  to 
communicate  the  knowledge  of  God,  who  shall  supply  his  omission,  or 
make  up  to  the  wronged  or  defrauded  child  his  lost  heritage  ?  How 
natural  and  beautiful  the  Divine  plan  for  transmitting  truth !  Every 
parent  a  historian  and  preacher ;  every  habitation  a  temple  ;  every 
path  a  school-house  ;  every  bed  a  pious  retreat,  where  age  sinks  to 
rest  with  the  language  of  piety  on  its  lips,  and  youth  is  hushed  to 
repose  by  the  music  of  love  in  the  words  of  heaven.  Oh  !  if  the  peo- 
ple would  live  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God, 
what  families !  how  happy ;  what  children  !  how  lovely ;  what  churches ! 


13 

how  pure  ;  what  a  nation  !  how  great,  and  wise,   and  strong,  having 
God  so  nigh  in  all  that  we  call  upon  Him  for. 

What  a  departure  from  the  word  of  the  Lord  must  that  be,  which 
has  accredited  people  with  religion— Bible  religion— and  yet  allowed 
them  to  live  in  the  neglect  of  a  primary  duty,  integral  to  personal 
piety,  essential  to  Church  progress,  fundamental  to  public  order  and 
national  greatness  !  Verily,  the  bread  which  we  have  been  using  may 
continue  breath  and  being,  but  it  is  scanty,  husky  fare,  and  will  fill 
the  land  with  moral  skeletons,  tattered,  hungry  prodigals,  too  feeble 
to  stand  in  virtue's  ways,  and  too  far  off  to  return  to  our  Father's 
house.  If  we  would  have  our  sons  as  plants,  grown  up  in  their  youth  ; 
our  daughters  as  corner  stones,  polished  after  the  similitude  of  a  pal- 
ace ;  if  we  would  enjoy  the  fatness,  the  sweetness,  the  wine  of  life,  we 
must  live  by  every  word  of  God.  "We  must  come  back  to  the  law 
and  to  the  testimony,  and  renouncing  and  denouncing  all  the  pert 
infidel  sayings  of  the  times,  all  the  cant  of  irresolution,  the  pleas  of 
sloth,  the  pretences  of  a  mock  humility,  set  ourselves  to  realize  that 
prophetic  scene,  bright  with  celestial  promise — "  and  all  thy  children 
shall  be  taught  of  the  Lord,  and  great  shall  be  the  peace  of  thy 
children." 

It  is  due  to  the  subject,  and  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  to  say  that 
the  whole  education  of  the  country  should  be  Christian.  During  the 
formative  period  of  life,  it  is  obviously  the  will  of  God,  and  to  the 
interest  of  society,  that  the  rising  generation  should  be  taught  the 
knowledge  of  God,  the  mind  developed  in  the  light  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  heart  guarded  from  the  contagion  of  bad  example,  and  trained 
under  a  system  decidedly  evangelical.  Science  and  religion  should 
be  united  in  indissoluble  wedlock.  The  sanctities  of  the  parental  roof 
and  the  memories  of  pious  instruction,  should  be  perpetuated  in  the 
schoolhouse,  the  academy,  the  college.  The  interests  at  stake  are  too 
precious  to  be  jeoparded  by  any  omissions,  or  lapses^  or  intervals  of 
neglect.  The  infidel  policy  of  leaving  the  youthful  mind  unbiassed 
and  free,  is  unsound  in  principle  and  impracticable  in  fact.  It  is  a 
stratagem  of  the  enemy  of  souls,  too  shallow  to  deceive  a  thinking 
man,  and  ought  to  spring  the  good  to  an  instant  occupancy  of  the 
ground,  and  a  tenacious  holding  of  it,  by  all  the  arts  of  love  and 
mercy,  the  most  assiduous  pains-taking  care,  and  the  most  devout  sup- 
plications to  God  for  needed  help.  The  Christian  denominations  of 
the  land  have  been  seeking  to  do  somewhat  in  this  direction  ;  but 
they  have  largely  modified  their  plans,  to  forestall  the  charge  of  sec- 
tarianism, and  escape  the  apprehended  edge  of  reproach  from  their 
enemies.     What !  is  it  sectarian  to  teach  a  youth  to  fear  God,  to  do 


14 

right,  to  love  the  country  !  Sectarian,  to  urge  patriotism,  benevolence, 
personal  purity,  by  the  sanctions  of  revealed  religion  !  My  brethren, 
if  we  would  live  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  we  must  no  longer  com- 
promise our  duty  to  God  and  the  country,  by  diluting  our  systems  of 
education  to  suit  carnal  taste  and  worldly  wisdom.  We  must  prepare 
for  the  future.  The  conflict  for  dominion  between  light  and  darkness 
is  progressing — the  crisis  is  at  hand.  We  must  come  up  to  the  help 
of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty.  The  young  should  be  enlisted  as  con- 
scripts of  the  Kingdom.  Catechisms,  Sunday  schools,  family  religion, 
pastoral  care,  religious  education,  should  all  be  levied  upon,  pressed 
into  service,  if  we  would  save  the  landmarks  of  morality  from  the 
inundations  of  vice,  and  draw  over  the  nation  the  shield  of  Omnipo- 
tence. Put  the  Bible  in  every  house,  an  evangelical  teacher  in  every 
school,  a  man  of  God  in  every  pulpit — stir  up,  vitalize,  intensify  every 
agency  for  good  in  the  Church  ;  multiply  by  faith  and  prayer  revivals 

of  religion ;     seek,    O    seek,    the  instruction   and  conversion  of  the 

.  .  .  • 

young  ;  and  then,  when  this  terrible  war  is  ended  and  peace  reigns  in 

all  our  borders,  we   shall   have   a  state  of  society  so  bright,  beautiful 

and  blest,  that  time  shall  have  no  emblem  of  it  in  the  past  but  Eden, 

and  eternity  no  type  in  the  future  but  heaven. 

This  history  of  the  past,  as  well  as  the  suggestions  of  the  text,  con- 
strain me  to  add  one  more  illustration  of  the  general  truth  I  have  been 
expounding.  The  life  of  a  nation,  in  the  sense  of  stability,  honor, 
credit,  prosperity,  depends  largely  upon  the  moral  character  of  its 
rulers.  Nor  are  these  results  regulated  by  merely  natural  causes. 
History,  sacred  and  profane,  attests  that  God's  blessing  is  upon  the 
good,  and  His  curse  sooner  or  later  upon  the  bad.  In  the  political 
creed  of  this  country,  a  man's  morals,  his  relations  to  God,  have 
scarcely  been  thought  of  in  his  elevation  to  office.  Party,  party- 
service,  order  in  rotation,  have  often  determined  the  candidate,  and, 
albeit  he  was  the  victim  ef  notorious  vices,  the  wire-worker  reckoned 
advisedly  upon  rallying  the  strength  of  the  party  to  his  support, 
through  his  affinity  with  the  vile  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  unscru- 
pulous devotion  of  all  the  rest  to  the  platform,  on  the  other.  We  are 
the  victims  to-day  of  this  ungodly  traffic  in  vice,  of  unscriptural  theo- 
ries of  government,  of  selfish  schemes  of  power,  of  the  fanatical  ambi- 
tion to  enthrone  an  idea  born  in  the  seethiDg  brain  of  a  pseudo- 
philanthropy,  which  boldly  avows  that  the  Bible  is  a  lie  if  it  does  not 
teach  its  creed,  and  God  to  be  rejected  if  He  does  not  endorse  it. 

The  word  of  the  Lord  is,  "  provide  out  of  all  the  people  able  men 
that  fear  God."  "  The  wicked  walk  on  every  side,  when  the  vilest 
men   are    exalted."     "  When   the   wicked  beareth  rule,  the  people 


15 

mourn."  On  the  other  side,  a  ruler  "  is  a  minister  of  God  for  good" — 
"  a  terror  to  evil  doers,  and  a  praise  to  them  that  do  well."  "  Right- 
eousness exalteth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people," 
especially  when  sin  is  exalted,  honored,  enthroned  in  the  high  places 
of  the  land.  In  the  divine  administration,  rulers  are  contemplated 
as  the  head  and  representatives  of  the  people,  even  in  hereditary  gov- 
ernments ;  and  it  must  be  eminently  so  in  an  elective  one.  It  is  to 
be  remembered,  therefore,  that  the  people  must  share  in  the  judg- 
ments which  the  sins  of  rulers  provoke.  When  these  proud  trans- 
gressors challenge  the  Divine  Being  by  their  reckless  impiety,  the 
retribution  is  often  sudden  and  overwhelming,  as  when  He  smote 
Herod  with  worms ;  or  a  gradual  blight,  a  living  death,  as  in  the  days 
of  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to  sin.  One  mode  of 
divine  punishment,  (and  perhaps  the  most  to  be  dreaded,)  is  to  aban- 
don a  people  to  corruption,  leave  the  disease  to  work  its  course  with- 
out check,  permit  them  to  fill  up  the  cup  of  their  iniquity,  and,  when 
sin  puts  on  the  glare  of  renown  and  the  robes  of  office,  and  dances  in 
festal  gaiety  under  the  patronage  of  the  great — when  the  floodgates 
are  open,  the  impediments  are  gone,  and  pollution  rolls  like  a  flood — 
then,  the  clouds  of  wrath  brew  in  the  heavens  above,  and  the  Dead 
sea  makes  ready  her  grave  beneath.  Another  mode  is,  to  make  the 
people  mourn  their  folly,  through  the  passions  of  their  rulers,  and  then 
come  wars,  taxes,  oppression,  waste  of  blood  and  treasure ;  or  the 
clouds  of  heaven  are  sealed  and  the  parched  earth  responds  not  to  the 
tiller's  toil ;  mildew  blights  the  ungathered  harvest,  pestilence  wastes 
population,  or  the  red  rain  of  battle  drenches  the  land  with  sorrow, 
and  captivity  is  the-  doom  of  the  nation.  We  are  beginning  a  new 
career.  God  help  us  to  avoid  the  errors  of  the  past,  and,  throwing  off 
the  shackles  of  parties,  conventions  and  platforms,  to  abide  by  the 
word  of  the  Lord.  Let  us  have  a  Christian  nation  in  fact  as  well  as 
in  name,  that  God  may  be  as  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  this  young 
Confederacy,  and  a  glory  in  the  midst  of  her. 

There  is  one  other  departure  from  the  word  of  the  Lord,  common 
to  the  policy  of  the  country,  adopted  and  pursued  by  well  nigh  all, 
which  demands  and  deserves  rebuke.  I  mean  the  greed  of  gain,  the 
deification  of  money.  The  subject  is  too  large  for  discussion  now, 
but  a  word  to  the  wise  will  not  be  amiss. 

In  this  very  chapter,  Moses  admonished  the  people  against  the  self- 
same evil  into  which  we  have  sadly  run,  and  notifies  them  that  the 
only  security  against  the  temptations  of  an  all-surrounding  abundance, 
was  to  remember,  fear  and  obey  God.  "  Beware,  lest  when  thou  hast 
eaten  and  art  full,  and  hast  built  goodly  houses  and  dwelt  therein ; 


16 

and  when  thy  herds  and  thy  flocks  multiply,  and  thy  silver  and  gold 
is  multiplied,  and  all  that  thou  hast  is  multiplied ;  then  thine  heart 
be  lifted  up,  and  thou  forget  the  Lord  thy  God."  Alas  !  this  is  the 
crime  and  the  curse  of  America.  We  have  prospered,  grown  rich, 
luxurious,  proud,  and  have  said  in  our  hearts,  "  my  power  and  the 
might  of  my  hand  hath  gotten  me  this  wealth." 

The  history  of  the  world  confirms  the  testimony  of  the  Bible  as  to 
the  moral  dangers  of  accumulated  treasure.  Wealth  is  favorable  to 
every  species  of  wickedness.  Luxury,  licentiousness  of  manners,  sel- 
fishness, indifference  to  the  distresses  of  others,  presumptuous  confi- 
dence in  our  own  resources — these  are  the  accompaniments  of  affluence, 
whenever  the  safe-guards  of  the  Divine  word,  both  as  to  the  mode  of 
increase  and  the  proper  use,  are  disregarded.  As  to  the  higher  forms 
of  character  and  civilization,  unless  regulated  and  sanctified  by  Scrip- 
ture truth  and  principle,  opulence  has  always  been  one  of  the  most 
active  causes  of  individual  degeneracy  and  of  national  corruption. 
Under  the  influence  of  its  subtle  poison,  moral  principle  decays ; 
Patriotism  puts  off  its  nobility  and  works  for  hire  ;  Bribery  corrupts 
the  judgment  seat,  and  Justice  is  blinded  by  gifts  ;  Benevolence  sup- 
presses its  generous  impulses,  and  counts  its  contributions  by  fractions  ; 
Religion,  forgetting  the  example  of  its  Author  and  the  charity  of  its 
mission,  pleads  penury,  and  chafes  at  every  opportunity  for  work  or 
distribution  ;  Covetousness  devours  widows'  houses  and  grows  sleek 
on  the  bread  of  orphans  ;  Usury  speculates  on  providence  and  claims 
its  premium,  alike  from  suffering  poverty  and  selfish  extravagance  ; 
Extortion  riots  upon  the  surplus  of  the  rich  and  the  scrapings  of  the 
poor,  enlarges  its  demand  as  necessity  increases,  and,  amid  impover- 
ishment, want  and  public  distress,  whets  its  appetite  for  keener  rapine 
and  with  unsated  desire,  laps  the  last  drop  from  its  victim  and  re- 
morselessly sighs  for  more.  The  world  counts  gain  as  godliness, 
prosperity  as  virtue,  fraud  as  talent ;  and  money,  money,  MONEY, 
is  the  god  of  the  land,  with  every  house  for  a  temple,  every  field  for 
an  altar,  and  every  man  for  a  worshipper.  The  Church,  infected  by 
popular  example,  adopts  the  maxims  of  men,  grades  the  wages  of  her 
servants  by  the  minimum  standard,  pays  slowly  and  gives  grudgingly, 
and  stands  guard  over  her  treasures,  as  if  Providence  were  a  robber,  and 
they  who  press  the  claims  of  Heaven  came  to  cheat  and  to  steal. 

Whenever  the  conservative  laws  of  accumulation  and  distribution, 
as  prescribed  in  the  Bible,  are  ignored,  then  not  only  does  the  love 
of  money  stimulate  our  native  depravity,  but  the  hoarded  gain  fur- 
nishes facilities  for  uncommon  wickedness.  The  attendant  evils  are 
uniform.     They  have  never  failed  in  the  history  of  the  past.     When 


17 

commerce,  manufactures  and  agriculture  pour  in  their  treasures,  then, 
without  the  counteracting  power  of  Scripture  truth  and  Gospel  grace, 
they  infallibly  breed  the  sins  which  have  been,  under  God,  the  execu- 
tioners of  nations.  Such  is  the  suicidal  tendency  of  unsanctified 
wealth,  that  the  greater  the  prosperity  of  a  people  the  shorter  the  du- 
ration. The  virulence  of  the  maladies  superinduced  destroy  suddenly, 
and  that  without  remedy.  Now  mark  how  apposite,  how  prophetic, 
how  descriptive,  the  word  of  the  Lord  :  "  They  that  will  be  rich 
fall  into  temptation  and  a  s?iare}  and  into  many  foolish  and 
hurtful  lusts.'"  "He  that  maketh  haste  to  be  rich  shall  not  be  in- 
nocent." "  He  that  hasteth  to  be  rich  hath  an  evil  eye."  How 
these  passages  rebuke  the  spirit  of  speculation,  the  greedy  desires,  the 
equivocal  expedients,  the  high-pressure  schemes  of  the  people  !  "  Lay 
not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth."  "  Charge  them  that  are 
rich  in  this  world,  that  they  be  not  highminded  nor  trust  in  uncertain 
riches."  0,  ye  who  make,  and  save,  and  hide,  and  hoard,  hear  ye 
the  word  of  the  Lord:  "Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  your  gar- 
ments are  moth-eaten ;  your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered,  and  the  rust 
of  them  shall  be  a  witness  against  you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesh  as  it 
were  fire."  0,  ye  who  strut  and  shine  in  plumage  plucked  from  the 
poor  and  needy,  "  ye  have  received  your  consolation  ;"  "  weep  and 
howl  for  the  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  you." 

One  of  the  moral  secrets  of  this  wretched  war,  as  we  call  it,  (per- 
haps it  may  turn  out  to  be  merciful,)  in  my  judgment,  is,  to  arrest 
the  corruption  of  prosperity — to  unsettle,  agitate,  break  loose  the  peo- 
ple from  their  plans  and  hopes — dethrone  their  cotton  idol,  and, 
by  upheaving  the  incrustations  imposed  by  long  years  of  peace  and 
security,  to  let  into  our  darkened  minds  the  light  of  truth  and  venti- 
late the  dormant  conscience.  Infatuated  by  the  love  of  the  world, 
sensualized,  fast-rooted  in  our  pride  and  forgetfulness  of  God,  the 
Spirit  of  grace  has  been  shut  out,  the  hearts  of  men  were  impervious, 
through  the  power  of  dominant,  over-mastering  habit,  and  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel  as  fruitless  as  would  have  been  the  tinkling  of  a 
cymbol.  The  Church  has  been  sliding  into  the  world :  the  broad 
Scriptural  lines  of  deuiarkation  were  well  nigh  passed.  Piety  had 
grown  thin,  meagre,  unreal.  Christian  manhood  was  merged  in  a 
mawkish  spirit  of  compliance — a  supple,  sickly  liberality,  ready  to 
break  down  the  last  barrier  to  the  encroachments  of  fashion  and  the 
demands  of  an  ungodly  age.  We  needed  reform.  The  shocks  and 
vibrations  of  war's  terrible  batteries  were  necessary  to  shake  the 
drowsy,  stagnant  atmosphere,  to  change  the  currents  of  thought,  to 
break  down  the  dominion  of  old  ideas,  and  set  us  free  from  the  selfish 


OFFICERS 

OF   THE 

BiMe  Society  of  tlie  Confederate  States  of  America. 


X^XlXfZSXXJXCZVZ-. 


Hon.  JOSEPH  HENRY  LUMPKIN,  of  Georgia. 


VXG&.^X'XlX'lSXXlJEilZVT'S. 


Daniel  Ravenel,  So.  Ca. 
Rev.  David  Wiles,  Ga. 
E.  A.  Holt,  Ala. 

Rev.  N.  H.  D. 


Rev.  Josephus  Anderson,  FJa. 
Rev.  Phil.   Courteney,  Va. 
Hou.  Nathan  Green,  Term. 
Wilson,  N.  C. 


atf^wjia-xcxis. 


Rev.  S.  S.  Davis,  D.D.,  Rev.  Joseph  R.  Wilson,  D.D.,  Rev.  E.  H. 
Myers,  D  D.,  Rev.  A.  T.  Mann,  D.D.,  Rev.  A.  J.  Huntington,  Rev. 
W.  J  Hard,  Rev.  W.  H.  Clarke,  George  M.  Thew,  Wm.  A.  Walton, 
Dr.  I.  P.  Garvin,  W.  C.  Derry,  D.  R.  Wright,  Dr.  L.  JJ.  Ford,  Dr. 
J.  Milligan,  W  P.  Carmichael,  D.  B.  Plumb,  W.  L.  Mitchel,  and 
James  M.  Chambers,  of  Georgia;  E.  L.  Kerrison  and  John  A.  Inglis, 
of  South  Carolina  ;  R.  A.  Baker,  of  Alabama ;  W.  C  Means,  of 
North  Carolina  ;  Rev.  George  Woodbridge,  D.D.,  of  Virginia;  James 
E.  Broome,  of  Florida. 


OX^X/'XCXZXXS     OX-~    3^XXX£    JBOuUXZXJ. 

Rev.  W.  H.   Clarke,  Chairman. 

Rev. -W.  J.  Hard,  Recording  Secretary. 

Rev.  E.  H.  Myers,  D.D.,  Corresponding  Secretary. 

George  M.  Thew,  Treasurer. 


TERMS    OF    MEMBERSHIP. 

Members  of  the  Society  shall  be  as  follows': 

Annual  Members — Being  persons  who  shall  annually  contribute 
a  sum  not  less  than  five  dollars. 

Life  Members — Being  persons  who  shall  have  given  the  sum  of 
thirty  dollars  in  one  payment. 

Life  Directors—  Being  persons  who  shall  have  given  the  sum  of 
.  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

Honorary  Directors — Being  members  of  the  Gospel,  whose  con- 
gregations' shall  make  an  annual  contribution  in  aid  of  the  funds  of 
the  Society. 

Patrons — Being  persons  who  shall  have  given  the  sum  of  one 
thousand  dollars. 


^"Contributions  nky  be  forwarded  to  Gkokge  M.  Thew,  Esq.,  Treasurer,  Augusta, 
Georgia. 


